On TV As in Life, Presidents Don't Last

By JACQUES STEINBERG

Published: January 24, 2005

Hours after President Bush delivered his second Inaugural Address on Thursday, the actor who portrays his fictional counterpart, Martin Sheen, sat in a dimly lighted mock-up of Air Force One 3,000 miles from Washington and reflected on the jockeying already under way to succeed his character on ''The West Wing.''

Asked how the producers of that NBC drama might ultimately choose among the two apparent front-runners -- a cranky Republican senator played by Alan Alda and an earnest Democratic representative played by Jimmy Smits -- Mr. Sheen leaned on the cane his character uses to combat the effects of multiple sclerosis and proposed ripping a page from the playbook of ''American Idol.''

''You could do it the way you would on, what do you call it, one of these reality shows,'' said Mr. Sheen, still wearing the three-piece navy suit his character, President Jed Bartlet, had worn for a scene set at a party. ''You could put Mr. Alda, Alan, and Jimmy Smits before the audience and say, 'Who would you like?' It would be interesting, wouldn't it?''

While the show's writers have ruled out a national referendum to elect their next president -- the ultimate vote will be cast by John Wells, the show's executive producer, who has yet to throw his support to a candidate -- the sixth season of ''The West Wing'' has already had enough suspense, intrigue and conflict among its main characters to rival ''Survivor.'' As President Bartlet's physical health has deteriorated -- he experienced partial paralysis on a plane ride to China for a state visit -- most of his aides are adjusting to new jobs, the result of a shake-up in the final year of his second term that has touched off uncharacteristic backbiting.

In one coming episode, Josh Lymon, who is played by Bradley Whitford and is the campaign manager for Mr. Smits's Matt Santos, actually brawls with the president's communications director, Toby Ziegler, played by Richard Schiff.

The creative jolt to ''The West Wing'' this season -- along with a modest increase in its ratings -- has come at a critical juncture in the life of the program. The contract between NBC and Warner Brothers Television, which owns ''The West Wing,'' is due to expire at season's end, and the network has yet to make a decision on whether to extend it.

For NBC, struggling through a season in which it could well finish fourth in the prime-time ratings, ''The West Wing'' has sometimes hurt more than it has helped, at times finishing fourth in its time slot, 9 to 10 p.m. Eastern time on Wednesdays. But working in the show's favor is that so far this season its ratings are up 1.2 percent from last year, according to Nielsen Media Research, and, more important, that its 11.9 million viewers remain among the most affluent watching television. In something of an anomaly, it also often draws substantially more viewers than the program that precedes it. (This past week, it nearly doubled the ratings of its lead-in, ''Sports Illustrated: Swimsuit Model Search.'')

While the network's situation has created its own suspense, both NBC and Mr. Wells sent signals this week that pointed toward the program's return. Jeff Zucker, president of the NBC Universal Television Group, told reporters gathered here Friday for a midseason presentation by the network that he considered the show to have ''rejuvenated itself'' and that he was optimistic it would be renewed. On Thursday, Mr. Wells said in an interview in his office on the Warner Brothers lot that he was ''as confident as I can be without a signed contract'' that there would be a seventh season.

''It moved from hope to confidence recently,'' he said, before adding, ''More than that, I expect the show has got a couple of more years in it.''

Meanwhile, with the exception of Mr. Sheen, every main actor and actress associated with the program, including both Mr. Alda and Mr. Smits, has formally committed to return for at least part of next season, Mr. Wells said. Mr. Sheen, whose representatives are currently negotiating with Warner Brothers, said that his own return was a foregone conclusion. ''I'm in,'' he said.

The idea that ''The West Wing'' might endure seemed almost unthinkable at the beginning of last season, when the program was sent reeling -- creatively, as well as among its executives and cast -- by the departure of Aaron Sorkin. Mr. Sorkin, who had created the show, wrote or rewrote all 88 episodes in those first four seasons, Mr. Wells said. His departure, along with that of Thomas Schlamme, another executive producer who directed many episodes, left only Mr. Wells from what Mr. Sheen described as ''the triumvirate'' that had guided the show.

Mr. Wells acknowledged in the interview that the show had struggled at times last season as he presided over a team of writers who took turns trying to figure out how to compensate for the loss of Mr. Sorkin's distinctive voice. Among the mistakes he made, he said, was leaving all of the main characters in the same jobs they had held since the early days of the Bartlet administration.